Seeing Norton excel as soon as he held the right tools had shifted something within Reid's realm of understanding. He heavily relied on his power, dexterity, and skill resistances. That was true in fights themselves, but also in everyday actions. The way he'd connected his threadspace and library was directly tied to how those spaces interacted with one another to make a better set of tools to use. The nature of those tools was directly related to how he generally used them. So why wouldn't making new conduits and junctions be as simple as finding the right tool to prompt a connection?

He started off by asking Nyx to let him poke around on his own, and then spent the next few hours probing himself internally.

Reid looped through different spaces within his body as he worked on his theory. When he felt like he'd hooked on a good lead, Reid placed himself within his power metaspace.

He knew how metaphysical and physical power worked. He'd used both extensively, and even made constructs that would take power and do useful things with it. So power was a series of applications - available through a singular, effective fuel. If he had to define it, Reid imagined the power junction would function like a series of rechargeable batteries, like the ones you'd find in a cordless drill.

Reid tried to focus in harder on his idea. Everything around him was power. He just needed the connection to its use.

Half-decent analogies swirled in his thoughts. Batteries. Energy. Power tools. Reid shook his head to clear away a line of thinking that felt just a little wrong, and tried to re-frame. A battery was a container. Potential energy. Packed and ready resources. Resources like... resource stores.

He felt a pull of potential.

What if power could supercharge the kitchen, and connect power to each of the resource stores?

Would a link like that even work? Or... what restrictions was he actually dealing with?

The kitchen for his constitution metaspace was a concept that allowed him to interact with his metaphysical self and his stores of nutrients and energy. But then, the changes and work he did inside of that metaspace were able to affect all of his energy stores within him. So if the energy stores could all be interacted with from a single location, didn't it make sense that the same could happen with power? Cooking a meal provided different storage nodes with the same benefit, so it should function the same way for power.

Reid closed his metaphysical eyes and tried to feel for a sympathetic connection, then flinched when the space around him seemed to shift. Opening his eyes, Reid didn't see anything visibly different with the space. It just felt like things had moved a few feet to the left, and clicked into a better place - like straightening a crooked picture on the wall.

He blinked a few times. It all felt so straightforward now.

Reid walked over to the snack shack, and pulled open the door. He moved inside of the 'back room', and stared at a nondescript section of wall. It wasn't that the shack itself was the 'correct' point for a connection, but more that the connection point had shifted to align itself to something close to the concept Reid was chasing. He wasn't sure what to do with that information, but it did explain the world-tilting-into-place feeling he'd experienced.

Reid pushed his fingers forward, and felt the possibility coalesce around his hand as it touched against something solid. All he had to do now was push.

It took effort, and energy, but Reid soon found his blows against the wall give way to that same odd sensation where something important folded back in on itself at the edges as he plunged forward into an impossible black. He kept himself moving. It was just pain and unease that permeated through his entire body and existence - now that he'd gone through the process once, neither bothered him quite as much.

Time slipped by as he moved forward, until he made it out to the other side of the connection. Reid gave himself a moment to catch his breath, and surveyed the area around him. It was dim, and though not exactly like the gelatinous mounds in the junction between his threadspace and library, it was clear the junction he found himself in was fundamentally similar.

He swallowed, and moved to the far edge. He could feel the potential waiting there for him, ready and eager to bridge itself the rest of the way through.

His fingers touched on the edge - and Reid stopped himself.

He could do the full conduit. He knew it in his bones. He'd made a full one the first time around, and replicating that feat wasn't going to challenge him now that he knew where everything was.

But at the same time, pushing himself too far was just going to knock him on his ass. He'd be useless, lose time, and depending on how aggressive the beasts were, they might take out one of the trio. It would be unconscionable to have one of them lose their life because he didn't have the patience to rest for 12 hours before he continued doing what he was doing.

Most importantly, he couldn't let his chef die.

Reid pulled himself back from the wall, and found Nyx beside him. She gave him a warm smile, and an approving nod.

#

#

The next day, Reid pushed the trio to see how much ground they could actually cover when pressed. The few levels they'd gained did a bit to help their endurance and speed, and it quickly became apparent that each of them had chosen a different balance of stats. The discrepancies made it difficult for them to stay up to speed with one another, and they each had to rest at different intervals. They took shelter under tree canopies, and at one point Gerald made a stone shelter for them to hide under. He even cajoled Brinkha into putting a few of the stones he found into her limited storage space - which was significantly smaller than the space available in Reid's storage ring. Gerald wanted to keep the stone to use it in future builds.

Reid could always sympathize with the intention to keep good rocks around.

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What he had more trouble wrapping his head around was their mentality towards growth. They were increasing their personal power, but were also just as happy to sit back and do nothing if Reid allowed them to. They couldn't act nor move as freely as Reid could. They couldn't stand up to the powerful beasts alone. He realized it was entirely possible that they may never feel the same sense of urgency that he had - they might not even reach the level he'd currently attained.

Brinkha wanted to raise her power so she could earn money. She still equated the idea with resources that would be necessary to investigate her sister's disappearance. Gerald wasn't really interested in power itself, but what it might bring him. He seemed convinced he needed a base level of ability to go 'rejoin the corps', where there would be wars to fight against a new universe - cosmos - full of enemies. His interest was solely on getting powerful enough to be able to build shelters for the frontline warriors and to man or fix fortifications they might need in a conflict. Reid didn't have the heart to tell him that without a magic skill to build or repair fortifications, he wasn't going to be of much use with mundane ability alone.

Norton, for his part, didn't seem interested in doing much of anything. The man only showed real emotion when he was cooking.

So, the trio weren't obsessed with gaming levels - they wanted simple living.

Reid made arguments against their stated desires. Post-awakening Vuxarina wasn't going to just let them have what they wanted, and neither would Belar. Growth was possible, so why not throw yourself towards that single goal? Sure, everyone needs rest, but do you really need to sit down now?

Despite his attempts, the rift between their thinking was vast. The three of them had experienced captivity at the hands of a more powerful entity, and they still didn't choose to throw their all into grasping for more power. Their goal was... comfort. To find an acceptable level of strength, and coast. He knew it wasn't a wrong way of thinking, but the idea that they would stop growing once he separated from them gave Reid an extra excuse to push the Trio. He followed sprinting through the woods with manufactured fights, then roused them from rest and made them continue on. They didn't complain as much as he expected, and by the time they went to rest for the night, each was close to a new level.

With the trio asleep, Reid dove back down into himself and shot over to his new junction. He spent a moment making sure he was still truly in the right location, then slammed a fist into the wall until it cracked. Unease and pain welcomed him as he forced himself through the black space where the edges folded in on themselves, and he grit his teeth as the resistance increased. One thing was made especially clear now that he was trying to make the connection with a fully rested body - opening the second half of a conduit was more intensive than the first half.

He kept pushing forward, and eventually made it to the other side where he half-fell into the kitchen metaspace. Reid was drained and tired - but it wasn't as bad as the last time. His arms and metaphysical body were damaged, but not so badly that he would need multiple days of rest to recover. Reid mused to himself that he'd need to use the metaspace he was currently in to help his body recover effectively.

Nyx appeared above him, and looked Reid over before she nodded.

"Well, congratulations are due. You learned from last time, and didn't rush headlong into hurting yourself."

Reid lifted himself slowly off the ground, and grunted through pain as he forced himself into a sitting position. Nyx joined him on the floor of the kitchen. "I'm still pretty banged up. Is it going to be like that for every conduit?"

She tilted a hand. "It should get relatively easier as you do more, but conduit difficulty can vary. You can also do the tunneling in more than one session, if it's ever too much. Well, you won't, but it's possible. Now that you've gone and made another conduit, let's talk about them."

Nyx leaned over, grabbed something from a shelf, and threw it towards the new junction. It sailed forward, and was joined by a matching thread of energy from the other side. When it made it to the central junction space, both items spun around one another and then seemed to dissolve into the air. As they did, a series of the pillar-like structures in the space lit up, then dimmed immediately. Reid felt a minute soothing sensation flow from multiple places in his body at once.

"I've been thinking a lot about how to word this, so listen close. Conduits enable connections. Junctions are functional. Your threadspace requires true setup to make those functions useful to you, and you can change them a bit over time. But this junction is different. It pulled the resource I threw and then pulled a matching amount of mana to make something of an internal salve for you. With a bit of practice, you won't need to throw things in manually. But you can't fundamentally change how this junction works - at least not from here. Your major impact will be in activating more of those pillars, by finding and opening up more of your resource stores. These two types aren't the only two. You'll need to work your way through the rest, but remember one thing will always be true. Conduits enable connections, and junctions are functional."

Reid pulled a few more resources from the cabinets and flung them down the conduit, but the sensation of pain relief didn't stack.

"So, this junction feeds my energy stores in my body, which are all at different spots, but it does it from one location. And this weird sensation happened when I was in the power metaspace where it felt like things... shifted. Like metaphysical me, and something else got put into... alignment, I guess is the right word. Is that important? The alignment. Do I need to do that for other conduits? And how many conduits can I make? What else can be connected?"

Nyx gave him a smile. "Those are excellent questions."

#

#

Nyx was back in silent teacher mode, which left Reid to puzzle through his next steps. Their slow path continued through the forest for three weeks, and Reid used his nights for a mix of stat affixation and wandering around internally, hoping for inspiration. None came, but he did manage to max himself out again.

Constitution: 585 -> 590 Dexterity: 573 -> 590 Intelligence: 575 -> 590 Perception: 574 -> 590 Power: 579 -> 590 Control: 590

Brinkha, Gerald, and Norton were getting better in their fights, but Reid wasn't ready to send them off on their own permanently. So, the trio was with him when he finally came to the mountains that the Duke called home. He stood at the foot of a massive incline with a seemingly flat top. Norton sniffed the air.

"Is that eggs?"

Brinkha shook her head. "Sulfur. It's a sign of volcanic activity."

Gerald put a hand above his eyes as he peered at the peak. "There's smoke, too. That thing might be active, we should steer clear."

The others nodded their assent. Reid tried to remember if there was a resistance for lava magic. Or magma magic. "You three stay here. Gerald, set up a camp with a solid structure. I'm heading up."

They exchanged nervous glances. Brinkha's words were slow. "Serroc, why are you climbing the volcano?"

Reid furrowed his brow. "The beast lord. Are you not able to see the questline marker?"

"Reid, you never invited them to join your faction, and you never asked me to. Would you like to? I can also make them a recognized part of your party while you're traveling with them."

He pinched his nose and tried to ignore that he hadn't considered their faction status over the last few weeks. "Yes. Please do that."

Acceptance notifications flashed into view as Reid turned and climbed the mountain.

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